This week the big thing is that my next book The Freelancer’s Guide to Getting Started is available for preorder. Get it now because the price is going up once it launches on November 27th. If you want to make sure you have your freelance business heading out the gate on the right foot, this is the book you need.
The other big thing I’m doing with Jason Resnick is to give you all the things that have worked for us in marketing our businesses. From emails, to workflows and a bunch of live video time. Get it now because it’s more expensive for Black Friday.
What I Published
Monday I published a rather long post on why I think that iOS is a more productive operating system than a traditional desktop operating system. I even did a video of it that was published on Thursday.
Tuesday I showed you how I deal with zip files in iOS. I got some feedback from a reader with another way to deal with them if you’re sending them to a server which I’ll share in a while on my YouTube channel.
Wednesday I talked about some of the marketing that has worked for me over the years. Don’t forget that Jason Resnick and I are going to be doing a course in a few short weeks on marketing your business and sticking to it so you can Stop the Cycle of feast and famine. It’s a reverse sale, it goes up for Black Friday so get it now.
Thursday I talked about a bunch of books I’ve read that aren’t the “self-help” or productivity fare I often read. You can listen to it or read about them. Subscribe to Should I Read It so you don’t miss a book that matters.
Friday Five
1. Businesses are looking for an expert
So when a business has decided that they want their app built using Ionic as the ‘Ionic developer’ who is working on the project you are seen as the expert. Not only should you be able to develop an app with Ionic, but you need to be able to guide the business through the process of having building a hybrid app.
I fully agree with Stephen, businesses are looking for an expert. While he applies this to Ionic development, this is what any good freelancer can do.
If you want expert rates, then you need to offer more than just typing code. The most valuable thing you provide is your decision making ability.
2. Don’t manage problems, remove them
When something distracts you, don’t waste your effort trying to manage it. Instead, do yourself a favor and get rid of it completely. For example, if social media apps on your phone distract you, remove them from your phone. Don’t bother setting time limits, no one is so strong to resist the urge. And if you want to lose weight, stop buying junk food. Don’t allow snacks in your house.
Most productivity advice is all about management. You could read less productivity advice, and get more done, if you just cut the things that keep you from being productive.
Should productivity advice then become how to manage the other people when you no longer match their expectations on how you should be operating?
3. Technology and personal connectivity
I have wondered for a while about how technology connects us, or maybe just makes us seem connected. This article explores some of that.
Here are some parts that stood out to me.
A recent survey of 20,000 Americans found that almost half suffered from loneliness, which now qualifies as a chronic public health problem. Narcissism, a related condition, has been rising over 30 years of clinical studies and has become so widespread and so fundamental to all aspects of culture that the question is whether it can properly be identified as a pathology any longer.
I’d be interested to see a trend line for this. How many Americans were lonely in each decade and maybe what advances in technology seem to happen as things increase to where we are now.
The basic contradiction is as simple as it is desperate: the sharing of private experience has never been more widespread while empathy, the ability to recognize the meaning of another’s private experience, has never been more rare.
How often, instead of trying to empathize, do we just tell people why their experience is wrong and they should validate our experience instead.
The incipient political catastrophe in the United States can be summed up in a phrase: nobody believes the other’s pain is real. Nobody believes the other’s pain is meaningful; nobody recognizes anybody else’s pain. It is the central problem of internet-provoked outrage and loathing, the hyper-partisanship that turns on so many hinges. Nobody is willing to accept the other’s description of their feelings.
On what defines the human experience in the midst of computers.
When you live your life on computers, it is exactly what isn’t computable, what isn’t formulaic, what isn’t algorithmic, that is human.
If the idea of social networks, not tech but how people interact, interests you then I looked at a book called Connected that explores this topic in depth. Listen to it here, read it here.
4. Time Energy and Attention
Great discussion from Asian Efficiency on time energy and attention. Like today, I had the time to do a bunch of stuff but no energy due to a late night and my attention was pulled all over since my wife was out on a course.
You need to make sure you have all 3 sorted if you want to be productive.
5. Getting your business to stand out
Jeff Brown has a great podcast on standing out. I use one of these strategies to serve his book group well by participating extensively in it. I’ve even produced audio reviews for member only.
What are you doing to stand out?